External devices capable of cooperating with a smart terminal, such as a smart phone, or the like are increasing in number. As an example of an external device capable of cooperating with a smart terminal, a peripheral device capable of expanding a camera function, a storage function, or a display function, or the like of a smart terminal is given. In the following, an external device capable of cooperating with a smart terminal is referred to as a “gadget”.
When a gadget is connected to a smart terminal, authentication has to be performed. For example, in the case of a wireless-LAN type gadget, authentication is performed using an SSID and a password that are manually input by a user into the smart terminal. Also, there are some gadgets in which authentication is performed by a near field communication (NFC) touch or a simultaneous button method. A password used for authentication is stored between a smart terminal and a gadget, and thus authentication becomes unnecessary at the time of reconnection.
On the other hand, a change has been arising in applications that is connected to a gadget, and that provides services. For example, the development language of applications are shifting from native languages, such as Java (registered trademark), Object-C, or C++, and the like to HyperText Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and JavaScript (registered trademark), and the like. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (registered trademark), and the like have a low dependency on a platform, such as an operating system (OS), and the like, and thus one kind of source code is allowed to be used on a plurality of platforms. In this regard, applications formed by HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (registered trademark), and the like are referred to as Web applications (hereinafter referred to as “Web apps”). The Web apps are classified into Hosted Apps, and Packaged Web apps.
Hosted Apps are Web apps that are returned from the Web server when a Web browser accesses a Web server. On the other hand, Packaged Web apps are Web apps that are produced by putting together files included in Web apps, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (registered trademark), or the like in a form of a package, and are distributed and installed in a local environment of a user terminal. Packaged Web apps are in common with Hosted Apps on the point that they both operate on a Web browser. However, Packaged Web apps are able to be performed as offline Web apps. In the following, applications that are simply referred to as “Web apps” are Packaged Web apps.
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (registered trademark), and the like, which are said to be development languages of Web apps, are languages that have been developed in the Internet environment, and thus an IP address is involved in invoking a service application program interface (API), and the like. Regarding a gadget, in view of such a background, an API based on an IP address (API based on a representational state transfer (REST)) is published. For example, the following uniform resource locators (URLs) are examples of APIs that are published by gadgets, respectively.
http://<ip address of gadget>/api3/PW?x=<pwd>&m=1
http://<ip address of gadget>/api/1.0/data transmitted by POST message{“method”:“shot”,“params”,[ ]}
Related-art techniques are disclosed in Japanese National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2006-524973, and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-152917.